O Oceanids (Ὠκεανίδες). the 'Holy Company' of Daughters of *Ocean and *Tethys, and Sisters of the River-Gods. Their N
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O Oceanids (Ὠκεανίδες). The 'holy company' of daughters of *Ocean and *Tethys, and sisters of the river-gods. Their number varies, but Apollodorus names seven (Asia, *Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, *Amphitrite, *Metis) and Hesiod forty-one, including, in addition to those mentioned by Apollodorus, *Calypso *Clymene and Philyra. Most of those named mated with gods (Amphitrite with Poseidon, Doris with Nereus for example) and produced important offspring (Athena was born from Metis and Zeus, Philyra mated with Kronos in the form of a horse and produced the centaur Chiron, Clymene was the mother of Prometheus, and also bore Phaethon to Helius the sun-god.). The sons of Ocean were the fresh-water rivers, but some of the daughters were sea-nymphs, others spirits of streams called after a characteristic of their water such as Ocyrrhoe ('swift-flowing') or Xanthe ('brownish-yellow'); Styx, unusually, was a female river deity, personifying the river of Hades. Calypso ruled over the island kingdom of Ogygia (but her parentage as a true Oceanid is disputed). Metis had the ability, common to sea-gods, of being able to change her shape, although she was little more than the personification of wisdom, swallowed by Zeus in order to absorb that wisdom and to contain any threat from the child with whom she was pregnant. Oceanids feature as the chorus in Prometheus Bound, a tragedy which is set at the north-eastern edge of the known world, and at a time before Zeus had consolidated his power. The Oceanids were part of the older, pre-Olympian race of gods, who had a role as consorts or mothers of other divinities, but were more often viewed anonymously as belonging to the vastness of the sea, to be placated in times of storm and turbulence. [Aeschylus PV; Apollodorus 1.2.2; Apollonius 4.1414-21; Hesiod Theog 346-66; Vergil Georg 4.341-2] Oceanus (Ὠκεανός). The god of the encircling stream of Ocean, which was originally thought to hold within its embrace all the lands of a flat round earth and to be the ultimate source of all its seas, rivers, springs and waters. Helius, the sun-god, started the day from its eastern shores and sank into its stream in the west in the evening, to be brought back to the east each night in its current. The *Hesperides had their garden on the western bank, the *Islands of the Blessed were located in its stream there, and on the far side was the realm of the dead, visited by *Odysseus (although in sources other than the Homeric poems this territory was literally the 'underworld', situated beneath the earth in the western lands of Italy or Sicily). The river Ocean originally represented the furthest limits of travel, but later, with the advance of geographical knowledge, the term was applied only to the Atlantic as marking the boundary of the Mediterranean lands. The eponymous god Oceanus is given in Hesiod as one of the Titans, the oldest son of Gaia (earth) and Uranus (sky), who married his sister *Tethys; this early partnership was said to have provided evidence in philosophy that water was the first cause (ἀρχή) in nature. Oceanus fathered all the river-gods and the *Oceanids, and with Tethys cared for *Hera, when she was taken from Rhea after the overthrow of the Titans. Oceanus himself, out of respect for Zeus, did not take part in the battle of the Titans, and so his honours were preserved. He plays a part in Prometheus Bound as the father of the chorus of Oceanids and as an ally of Zeus who attempts to dissuade Prometheus from his opposition to the god. [Aeschylus PV 298-396; Apollodorus 1.1.3, 2.2; Aristotle Met 983b30; Hesiod Theog 133, 337-70; Homer Il 14.200-4, 21.193-199, Od 10.508, 11.13-22; Pindar Pyth 4.26, 251] Ocnus (Ὄκνος). One of the criminals who was said to suffer eternal torment in Hades. His particular punishment was to plait continually a rope of straw which was being consumed by a donkey at the same rate at which it was being plaited. The myth was taken to explain the situation of a hardworking man with an extravagant wife who spent his substance as fast as he could earn it. 'Plaiting the rope of Ocnus' became proverbial for working on a useless task. [Diodorus 1.97; Pausanias 10.29.1-2; Propertius 4.2.21] Ocrisia (Ὀκρισία). A prisoner of war taken at the fall of Corniculum who became the mother of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Her mysterious impregnation took place after she saw a phallus arising from the fire in the hearth while she was making an offering to the household gods. She was advised by her mistress Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, to dress as a bride, and to sit once more before the fire alone, and in this way she was said to have conceived a son by *Vulcan. In less dramatic versions of the story Ocrisia was either already pregnant on her arrival at Rome, or the father of the child was an anonymous member of the household. According to Livy, Ocrisia and Tanaquil became friends and brought the child up together. [Livy 1.39.5-6; Ovid Fasti 6.627-34] Ocyrrhoe (Ὠκυῤῥόη). 1. One of the daughters of Oceanus, she mated with *Helius and bore him a son Phasis. Subsequently Phasis killed her after discovering her with a lover, and then leapt into the river Acturus, which was renamed after him. [Hesiod Theog 360; Plutarch Fluv 5.1] 2. A daughter of the nymph Chisias and the river Iambrasos. Apollo fell in love with her but the nymph left Samos for Miletus under the protection of Pompilus, a sailor friend of her father, to escape the god's attentions. Apollo however changed Pompilus into a fish and his boat into a rock, and so cleared the way for his rape of the girl. [Athenaeus 7.283e] 3. The child of the centaur *Chiron and the nymph Charido. This Ocyrrhoe had the gift of prophecy but used it indiscriminately, revealing their destinies both to Chiron and to the child Asclepius, who was being reared by Chiron. To prevent further revelations she was changed into a mare by the gods and re-named Hippo. [Ovid Met 2.635-78] Odius (Ὀδίος). A herald of the Greek forces during the Trojan War, who with Eurybatus was sent by Agamemnon to escort Phoenix, Ajax and Odysseus on their embassy to *Achilles. his name means 'of the road'. [Homer Il 9.170] Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς, Latin 'Ulysses', 'Ulixus'). King of Ithaca and one of the most famous personalities in Greek myth the much-travelled man of many wiles. He is an important figure in the Iliad and the main character in the Odyssey, the archetypal adventurer and survivor, who uses his cunning and powers of persuasion to compensate for his comparative lack of physical strength. Although Odysseus did not have the heroic fighting qualities of Achilles or Ajax, his quick-wittedness throughout his long series of adventures has made him a universally popular figure. Odysseus was the only son of *Laertes, king of Ithaca and Anticleia, daughter of the famous thief *Autolycus. Post-Homeric sources suggest that his mother was in fact pregnant by *Sisyphus on her marriage to Laertes, so that Odysseus was descended from rogues on both sides of his family. Once in his youth Odysseus visited his grandfather Autolycus near Parnassus, and it was while he was on a boar hunt there that he was injured, and received the scar on his leg that led to his recognition by his nurse *Eurycleia on his final return home. In his early years in Ithaca Odysseus took part in many minor skirmishes with neighbouring kingdoms over cattle-rustling, and during one raid in Messenia he met *Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, who gave him the great bow that had belonged to his father. Odysseus so valued this bow that he vowed never to use it in war, and it was kept in Ithaca during the Trojan campaign. When Odysseus came of age Laertes abdicated, and went into retirement in the country. Odysseus was at this time one of the many suitors for the hand of *Helen, daughter of Tyndareus of Sparta; he realised that she would choose *Menelaus, and so he came to an agreement with her father. To avoid trouble from the rejected suitors. Odysseus advised him to ensure that all the suitors swore an oath to defend whoever was chosen against any harm that might occur as a result of the marriage. The oath was sworn, and in return Tyndareus used his influence with his brother Icarius for his daughter *Penelope to marry Odysseus; another source has Penelope as the prize won in a foot-race organised by her father. The oath sworn by the suitors was soon put into effect after Helen's abduction to Troy by Paris. An expedition was mounted to rescue her by Menelaus' brother *Agamemnon, who summoned all the suitors to raise contingents according to the oath they had sworn and to fight overseas with his Argive forces. Odysseus was living quietly in Ithaca with Penelope and their infant son *Telemachus then, and had no desire to fight in what he realised would be a protracted war. When Menelaus and *Palamedes arrived to recruit him they found the king in the fields pretending to be mad, ploughing with an ox and a horse yoked to the same plough, and sowing the furrows with salt.